fix(ui): preserve working directory when creating new chat (#6789)

Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 4.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

ui/desktop/src/components/bottom_menu/DirSwitcher.tsx

@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ import { FolderDot } from 'lucide-react';
 import { Tooltip, TooltipContent, TooltipProvider, TooltipTrigger } from '../ui/Tooltip';
 import { updateWorkingDir } from '../../api';
 import { toast } from 'react-toastify';
+import { setCurrentWorkingDir } from '../../utils/workingDir';
 
 interface DirSwitcherProps {
   className: string;
@@ -42,6 +43,7 @@ export const DirSwitcher: React.FC<DirSwitcherProps> = ({
     const newDir = result.filePaths[0];
 
     window.electron.addRecentDir(newDir);
+    setCurrentWorkingDir(newDir);
 
     if (sessionId) {
       onWorkingDirChange?.(newDir);

ui/desktop/src/utils/workingDir.ts

@@ -1,3 +1,11 @@
-export const getInitialWorkingDir = (): string => {
+// Track the current working dir for this window (updated when user changes it)
-  return (window.appConfig?.get('GOOSE_WORKING_DIR') as string) || '';
+let currentWorkingDir: string | null = null;
+
+export const setCurrentWorkingDir = (dir: string): void => {
+  currentWorkingDir = dir;
+};
+
+export const getInitialWorkingDir = (): string => {
+  // Use the current dir if set, otherwise fall back to initial config
+  return currentWorkingDir ?? (window.appConfig?.get('GOOSE_WORKING_DIR') as string) ?? '';
 };